A report from market research firm Interactive Data Corp. (IDC) last month gave some surprising news -- "Windows Phone posted the largest year-over-year gain among the leading operating systems, more than doubling its size from a year ago."

Led by Finnish phonemaker Nokia Oyj. (HEX:NOK1V) -- once the world's largest smartphone maker and currently the company behind roughly four out of every five Windows Phones shipped -- Windows Phone shipped 7.0m units in Q1 2013 for a 3.2 percent market share; slightly ahead of BlackBerry Ltd.'s (TSE:BB) 6.3m units shipped (and 2.9 percent market share). Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android widened its lead for the quarter, outselling Apple, Inc. (AAPL) more than 4-to-1, with a 79 percent market share.

Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows Phone product manager Larry Lieberman gave an interview to The Verge this week cheering the third place "victory". He comments, "We think we're solidly the third ecosystem right now. That's a huge announcement in some respects. [Windows Phone is] growing faster than anyone else right now."

The news must be bitter for BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins who has long stated that his ambition for his firm is to capture third place in the mobile market.

As for the Windows Phone product chief, he's dismissive of BlackBerry, commenting, "I don't think they can bring to the table some of the things we have. The fact like we're delivering across such a different set of price points to such a large audience."

After initially pledging to follow in Apple's line with Windows Phone, it now appears that Microsoft is aiming to emulate Google, whose OS is on three out of every four smartphones sold today. Microsoft and Nokia are hoping that sales of budget handsets will help to drive Windows Phone up a similar path of meteoric growth to Android.

Mr. Lieberman says that Microsoft continues its efforts to woo developers via a growing user base and easy to use APIs. He did not comment on the lack of a Windows Phone 8.1 preview at Microsoft's annual BUILD Conference, which wraps up tomorrow. He did hint at one possible feature, though, confirming that a notification center is the feature that is most often request in user feedback messages to Microsoft.

Ultimately Microsoft's decision not to tip its hand too early with WP8.1 may be a wise decision -- after all, early publication of Windows Phone 8 details depressed Windows Phone 7.5 sales last year. By contrast Apple and Google tend to announce new OS releases just befor they hit the market, to avoid a sales slowdown.

Win7 and Win8 phone while they might look similar with live tiles, are totally different systems. Win8 Phone uses a shared kernel with Windows 8. That has significant implications.

I remember when people were talking about how crappy android was and how iPhone was the new forever king of mobile, and how its market share dominated everything. I also remember when IE had 98% market share in the browser market.

If you think something is "not in the game" because there are others who thoroughly dominate a given market segment at the moment, then all I can say is wait a minute.

quote: If you think something is "not in the game" because there are others who thoroughly dominate a given market segment at the moment, then all I can say is wait a minute.

No that's not what I'm basing my viewpoint on. I'm basing my statements on the obvious plain-as-day observation of Microsoft's strategy with Windows Phone. Which has been quite lackluster and at times baffling.

Did you know Microsoft has listed July 2014 for when it will end support for Windows Phone 8. Already? Meaning if I bought a Windows Phone today it's basically guaranteed to be worthless before my contract is even up. Hooray!

Sure you can bring up Android "fragmentation", and that's valid. But waiting longer for an OS update is bit different than being left out of an entirely new OS altogether. You would think Microsoft would have learned from what happened when people bought WP7.5 devices only to learn they were completely obsolete as soon as WP8 launched!

Microsoft actually has years more experience than most mobile players. Yet Windows Phone 7 was lacking features so basic, it was hard to imagine a company like Microsoft, combined with years of a head-start in the smartphone OS market, could have missed them.

The lack of apps was obvious in Windows Phone 7 – and there hasn’t been any progress in WP8. Google recently declared that it would NOT be developing apps for the Windows Phone platform as it did not see any consumer demand. I can't stress enough what a massive blow that is. You can’t come up with an alternative to that. iOS has Google Apps, Android has Google Apps. But WP8 doesn’t. It’s doomed.

Honestly I don't see what you people are looking at. Is Windows Phone growing? Sure. Because the entire smartphone market is still growing (believe it or not, not everyone in the world owns one). But to just ignore so many troubling aspects to the Windows Phone ecosystem and say everything will work out, is just insane to me!

quote: Did you know Microsoft has listed July 2014 for when it will end support for Windows Phone 8. Already? Meaning if I bought a Windows Phone today it's basically guaranteed to be worthless before my contract is even up. Hooray!

That's not what it means at all. Way to misconstrue the point.

This is similar to, for example, Google saying they are ceasing support for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Many devices can still be updated from Ice Cream Sandwich which means they will still be supported.

Current Windows Phones that are updated in the future will still be supported. Those that are not updated in the future (possibly due to hardware constraints) won't be.

quote: The lack of apps was obvious in Windows Phone 7 – and there hasn’t been any progress in WP8. Google recently declared that it would NOT be developing apps for the Windows Phone platform as it did not see any consumer demand.

Google wouldn't even allow Microsoft access to the APIs to develop a Windows Phone Youtube app until recently. Microsoft actually developed a very good Windows Phone Youtube app very recently, which actually had no ads. This went against Google's terms and conditions and Google filed a complaint, however Microsoft's argument was that Google was not allowing Microsoft access to the APIs to allow ads in their app.

Eventually Google gave in and provided Microsoft access to the APIs, because they knew that if this went in front of a judge, they would be thrown out.

Google is always trying to find ways of preventing Microsoft from progressing with Windows Phone, so it's no surprise that they're not developing any apps for the platform.

Besides, the options we have available on Windows Phone are better (in my opinion) than Google's apps anyway, except for search.

First off Google makes it's money from ad revenue generated by people using it's services. Google doesn't make it's money from smartphones sales directly. Google doesn't lose profit if someone uses Gmail on a Windows Phone as apposed to Android.

So when you make statements like:

quote: Google is always trying to find ways of preventing Microsoft from progressing with Windows Phone

I have to question where you're coming up with that accusation.

After all, Apple's iOS is a far bigger competitor to Android than Windows Phone. Yet Google makes a ton of profit from iPhone's/iPad's using their services. It would be crazy to attempt to block competing platforms from using Google services. That makes no sense!

quote: Eventually Google gave in and provided Microsoft access to the APIs, because they knew that if this went in front of a judge, they would be thrown out.

More wild speculation. Microsoft doesn't have a god-given right to Google's API's. What judge, exactly, do you know who would say otherwise?

This is like saying Microsoft has to release Windows source code so we can all make better programs...

quote: Besides, the options we have available on Windows Phone are better (in my opinion) than Google's apps anyway, except for search.

Okay well that's your opinion. I don't know how you can arbitrarily state that the alternatives are "better" when such a gigantic majority of people opt-in to Google services daily.

I think my point still stands. The absence of Google Apps (as well as others) on Windows Phone is a major detractor to the platform. As well as perpetuates the stigma that Windows Phone's app marketplace is a barren wasteland.

quote: First off Google makes it's money from ad revenue generated by people using it's services. Google doesn't make it's money from smartphones sales directly. Google doesn't lose profit if someone uses Gmail on a Windows Phone as apposed to Android.

Exactly, in other words they don't make money on Windows Phone if they don't use Gmail but instead use Outlook.com.

quote: After all, Apple's iOS is a far bigger competitor to Android than Windows Phone. Yet Google makes a ton of profit from iPhone's/iPad's using their services. It would be crazy to attempt to block competing platforms from using Google services. That makes no sense!

Yes they do but considering Apple is now switching over to Bing as their default search engine....You can see the issue that crops up, Apple starts using Bing Search and Bing Maps until they get their search engine and maps; then you have Windows Phone market share only increasing and with no access to Google apps. Google starts to lose revenue from Apple and no real way to generate any real revenue on the growing Windows Phone.

quote: More wild speculation. Microsoft doesn't have a god-given right to Google's API's. What judge, exactly, do you know who would say otherwise?

He is not saying that Microsoft has a god-given right to the API's or that a judge would force Google to hand them over. What he is saying is that if Google was to take Microsoft to court over the fact that they were not including Google ads they would lose and thus would set the precedent that you don't need to use Google API's to access Google products. Why is this a problem? Because it means that Microsoft doesn't have to use Google's API's to access Google products thus Google doesn't have anyway of generating revenue to pay for the usage from Windows Phone. It also means that Apple could then develop their own API's to access Google products and not have to display ads or in the worse case with Apple they could display their own ads and reap all the revenue.

My Android phone came with 2.2, it still has 2.2 and is never going to be updated. Microsoft is not saying that you handset will be worthless, they are saying you'll have to upgrade to WP9 o continue receiving OS updates, that's par for the course in the smartphone market.

The iPhone was a PR darling that was competing against BlackBerry and Windows Mobile which were both HEAVILY business oriented. Windows Phone is going up again Android and iOS. In short WP is facing far stronger resistance and they don't have the Jobs magic to sell them, they're doing very well for the circumstances.